Forest fires create hell on earth: Yakutia

On By fstammleIn All, indigenous health, Russian North

related to the recent post about the forest fires in Siberia, here I share some footage from local people. This is not official news, it’s private people’s videos, often shot from their phones. It shows close up how Sakha people struggle to save their land and their homes from the inferno – mostly in vein. There is not much commentary in the videos, so people from any language background will find this shocking. (For those knowing Russian: please note this contains some dirty language):

20 minutes watching hell on earth. Words can’t tell the extent. But what is more: the fires leave behind the melted permafrost with all the terrible consequences. For us anthropologists first and foremost: where are local and indigenous people are going to graze their herds, and hunt for many years before these millions of hectares are going to be forests and pastures again – if ever? Some more pictures follow
inferno Yakutia 1, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtVqQ1piCVY
people have to give up their village to the fire, source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtVqQ1piCVY
Carbon Monoxide (CO) concentration in the air. It shows that the smog has reached the North Pole and is heading to Greenland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtVqQ1piCVY .

Nasa says “CO hinders the atmosphere’s natural ability to rid itself of harmful pollutants.” Imagine how much of it is now just over the Arctic, where all the permafrost and the ice is, over the planet’s fastest warming area…

The Russian authorities report on the 13 August 2021 a concentration of particle matter (PM) in the air of 21 times the allowable value! Imagine what people breathe in every day, already for more than a month!

In Yakutsk you cannot breathe properly any more either. And you can’t get out, as the airport and river navigation are closed . Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtVqQ1piCVY

For those who read Russian, there is a lot of non-state news on this forum,

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